Laios's Heart Game

[myhungryass]

It's dark, and you are not quite conscious. You have the sense that you are climbing; that you have been climbing for a long time. You can feel the burn in your thighs, the ache in your calves. You're a little too hot, and what you're wearing is a little too heavy. You have the sense of taking a last weary, heaving step onto a plateau.



You find yourself in a dark, blank place, dominated by a huge, dead monster, building sized, as big as a tower. Each of its enormous heads that you can see laid out before you is easily the size of a ballroom. There is blood on its lips and nostrils, blood crusted around its empty eye-sockets, but there is a feeling of hollowness about it. On second thought, you're not quite sure if it's a corpse or a moult.

There is no sign of the stairs you vaguely remember climbing. You are standing on the surface of some opaque black liquid. It feels almost completely solid under your feet, springy, but your footsteps leave ripples spreading out in rings... all around you is a velvety, impenetrable darkness. The only thing you can see is the vast, lifeless beast in front of you, illuminated as if by spotlights, though no actual light-source can be found.

Its orifices are mostly clogged with blood, but somehow, as you stare at it, one vaulted nostril on the wolf's head begins to seem like an archway... the lolling tongue hanging out of the rhinoceros's head like an entry ramp... the exposed, hollow eye-socket on the eagle's head like a portal...

Of course, if you're not quite ready to step inside a monster, you could keep walking around its body and see what you find.

Comments

[myhungryass]

It's Laios's voice, talking to himself. "You're not a child... you don't need a new father at your age... you can't stay here, anyway... he's not going to stay here... you're being ridiculous."

[owlimony]

[??????????]

[he didn't mean to keep eavesdropping but now he. he is.]

[myhungryass]

"Sure, Falin said he's taken you under his wing... but what does that really mean? But, he wouldn't have taught me about how to have sex with a man if he didn't want to... to teach me things, right?

...but dads probably don't tell their sons about how they had sex with dragons... but maybe it's different if you're adopted as an adult?? Ugh, this is so dumb, why am I even worried about this! Get it together. You're not a child..."

The voice loops.

[owlimony]

[h-huffs a small laugh. knocking gently?]

[myhungryass]

The door swings open, but the room is empty. The voice stops.

[owlimony]

[''^'']

Of course . . .

[poking his head in to look around, though]

[myhungryass]

Same triple bunkbed... same narrow room. If he brushes against the bed, though, a memory will wash over him. He's seen a more extended version of that one before, though.

[owlimony]

[blinks thoughtfully and tilts his head to the side]

Interesting . . .

[thoughtfully tries to see what happens if he. imagines creating a portal in the air?]

[myhungryass]

There's a sense of... hesitation. Thoughtfulness.

Then it appears, just as he imagined it.

[owlimony]

[hmmm. but does it work? he was imagining something that might take him to where he can find the actual Laios, who he's supposed to give the memories to]

[he sticks his head through]

[myhungryass]

He's looking into the gap between the giant rhinoceros head's teeth. The portal is hovering right above the surface of its enormous tongue.

[owlimony]

[pulls his head back out]

Oh, that does make sense, doesn't it? Your head and your stomach . . . hmmmm.

[well, what if I want to magically summon to myself any other items or memories I should bring to Laios?]

[myhungryass]

It doesn't work instantly, but you can feel that it is working. Something is approaching in response to your summons. It might be a couple minutes before it arrives... in the meantime, want to check out any of the other rooms? Bathroom, shrine room...?

[owlimony]

[well that's troubling! I shan't be concerned about it]

[yes, sure, let's check out the Shrine Room]

[myhungryass]

There's a sense of excitement when he walks in. Potential! The egg seems to dominate the room, Stolas's focus immediately drawn there. (But maybe that's just normal.)

[owlimony]

[that's normal]

Oh! The egg, of course.

[goes to gently put his hand on it]

[myhungryass]

It's warm... a busy tangle of thoughts wash over him, all related to care. The egg's routine, daily schedules, diet and exercise, the care and keeping of chimeras, and then more wide-scale... food distribution on a kingdom-wide level?? That sense of potential remains potent.

[owlimony]

[strokes it warmly with his hand, eyes closing, just. fond.]

[myhungryass]

While his eyes are still closed, a small Gaaaaooo! resounds from toe level.

[owlimony]

. . .




[looks waaaaay down]

[myhungryass]

The lion plush is sitting next to his feet. It has little white wings embroidered on its back, and button eyes. The buttons only have two holes, so with the thread between them, it creates the look of a double or hour-glass pupil.

Looks like that summoning spell has completed!

[owlimony]

[oh I summoned a little demon]

[he picks it up, examining it thoughtfully]

[myhungryass]

It's soft! Now that it's reached you, it doesn't seem to be animated anymore. As with the book, instead of a memory rushing over you, you feel that nudge in your mind of a potential memory... the way it feels when there's one waiting in your own bracelet.

[owlimony]

[were there just two memories to find? if so, Stolas is going to head back through that portal]

[myhungryass]

There are just two! He can step through the portal onto the rhino's tongue and make his way into the mouth.

The tongue is a little spongy underfoot, but it makes a surprisingly good ramp. As he steps between the monster's teeth, the smell of blood gets heavier and stronger... but also more appetizing.

His stomach growls. His mouth floods with saliva. It smells good in here. As he walks into the red cavern of its mouth, he'll only grow hungrier.

Strangely, it's better lit in here than it was outside. The walls of the mouth are vivid pink and red, the clear pathway down the esophagus easy to see.

As soon as he steps up to it, there's an enormous gulp, all around him, and he's swallowed. There's nothing he can do. One moment he's pushing carefully forward, and the next he's sliding helplessly, rushing along, squeezed down by that powerful contraction of muscle, slick fluid making it impossible to find purchase.

As he's dragged along, a memory washes over him.

He lands with a thump in a dark, cavernous space, on a flagstone floor. Before him are three large archways. Between him and the archways sits a familiar figure.

It's Kabru...? He is almost cross-legged, one knee up with the foot planted on the floor. There's a slightly dangerous light in his blue eyes. Also, there's a big ol' hickey on his neck and he is not wearing a shirt.

He smiles when he sees Stolas with the book and plush in hand.

"You'll want to bring those through there." He waves back at the middle archway. "Though you could take a look in there first, if you're curious." Another wave, towards the archway on Stolas's left (Kabru's right).